As farmers direct heat at the Centre, AAP’s Punjab govt catches a break

A week, they say, is a long time in politics. The beleaguered Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) might agree.

Till February 10, the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government was in the news for all the wrong reasons – protests by teachers, by a union of the “unemployed” seeking jobs, as well as by farmers. The arrest of a popular YouTuber last month on an extortion charge, followed by other allegations, and the crackdown on his supporters, had further earned the Mann government public ire.

In the midst of all this, the launch of the Punjab government’s much-vaunted ‘AAP di sarkar, aap de dwar (Your government at your doorstep)’ scheme, to bring selected government services to the masses, sank almost without notice.

On February 6, the same day as the launch of the scheme, the BKU Ugrahan started day-night dharnas outside district administration offices across the state over various demands. Its state chief Joginder Singh Ugrahan announced a series of conferences and said they would march to the CM house in Chandigarh on February 24.

But then began the farmer march towards Delhi on February 13 demanding legalisation of MSP, and the unexpectedly harsh crackdown by the BJP-led Haryana government on them. As the Haryana Police, backed by Central forces, pushed farmers back with multiple levels of barricades, drones dropping teargas shells, lathicharge and rubber pellets, the narrative changed. So did the object of the blame.

Soon, the BKU Ugrahan announced that given what was happening on the Punjab-Haryana borders at Shambhu and Khanauri, it would not hold its planned conferences and was postponing its march to the CM House indefinitely. “Instead, we will be staging dharnas outside houses of BJP leaders, including BJP state president Sunil Jakhar,